RyhopeWood

Monday, August 08, 2011

Just in case you've missed it, I wanted to share with all of you that I've started a new blog! Why? you may ask. Well, I wanted a place to write only about my thoughts on art and spirituality, to have a more focused purpose in writing a blog. So, I might still post here occasionally, but most of my time will be spent there. I've made a lot of good friends here, so I would love it if you would join me. Please click the link below. :)

http://www.angelasartblog.com/

(I've also written a little eBook called "What is it? A Short and Friendly Guide to Understanding Abstract Art." You can get that, free, on my new blog too.)

Thursday, June 02, 2011

This is Sammy, the cat who recently adopted us.I think I need to take lessons from him on how to really relax. :)

Looking at my last post a month later, it seems I focused only on the negative aspects of acute bronchitis. And while it was indeed frustrating to be so sick and so unable to paint, or really do anything much, for over a month, I did find something positive to hold onto from the experience. And I don't mean the cough that sometimes still plagues me.

What I learned during that time was the importance of being able to stop doing and just BE.

I rested, I got enough sleep at night, I drank a lot of tea, and I let myself not care that I wasn't getting anything done and just focused on self-care. I even gave up caffeine because it made me cough, and made it hard to get the rest I needed.

As a result when I did finally start to get well, I felt better than I had in years!

I don't consider myself to be a workaholic or anything like that, but I usually feel like I'm not doing enough, because all around me our high-paced high-paced modern society tells me that I really should be moving faster and doing more at once than I usually do. And even though I don't agree with that, I still can find myself feeling guilty when I'm not running full tilt. But because I was sick, and didn't really have a choice, I could LET myself act on my real beliefs. I could give myself time to be self-aware and take care of myself. I could LET myself not be pushed around by this culture of do, do, do.

These past few weeks I've been catching up on a lot of the things I couldn't do during that time. I'm back in the studio working on a couple of commissions, taking a marketing course, getting back to my Yoga classes, and steadily catching up on the neglected house and yardwork (since my husband was sick at the same time, we were lucky when we were able to get the dishes done, and much less mow the grass). And I can feel my lessons from illness fading.

So I'm writing this post to remind me of these lessons, and to keep them with me so I remember to make time for downtime before it's forced upon me. Downtime would probably be a lot more fun if I wasn't coughing up a lung. ;)

And what about you? Do you let the pace of our modern society guilt you into doing too much and not letting your self BE? Does it take an illness to let you feel like you can give yourself the gift of self-care?

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

The day after I wrote this post, I started having the same symptoms as my husband. I went to the doctor and luckily I didn't have pneumonia, but I did have acute bronchitis. And now, nearly a month later, I'm finally feeling truly well again. The bad news is that means that it's also been a month since I've painted. Now I'm facing a huge amount of Resistance to breaking free of illness-induced inertia and getting back to my life. I tried to go to my studio and paint one day last week, but my coughing just got in the way.

Monday, April 25, 2011

These are some pics I took after I got my show at Amocat Cafe all set up last week. My work will be on view there through the end of May, and there will be a "meet the artist" reception this Friday, April 29th from 5 - 7PM.

Monday, April 11, 2011

After all that talk about routine and structure, this past couple of weeks it's all gone out the window. My husband didn't just have a bad cold, he came down with pneumonia(!) and suddenly my priority changed from being an artist to being a full-time caretaker. (How you mothers out there do this all the time I'll never know! Just a few days of it nearly sent me over the edge.)

So now trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm already getting back into my studio routine, so maybe by next week I'll be back on topic and routine with my blog too.

In the meantime I'd like to let you know about my upcoming art exhibit! It was originally scheduled for June, but got moved up to this month(!) so I've had to scramble a bit, but I should have everything ready to hang this Friday.This is the postcard I just made for the show, and just sent off to be printed. The image is Ether Light, a painting that will be in the show and which I completed late last year. It's acrylic/mixed media on a 30" x 40" canvas. The location of the show is my favorite coffee house, Amocat Cafe, which also just happens to be right around the corner from my studio in downtown Tacoma. This is a very good thing! (Some mornings it's an essential thing.) My paintings will be on display there from April 16th - May 31st, and we're planning a "meet the artist" reception on April 29th, 5 - 7PM.

PS - this painting was a real bear to get a good photograph of, so I owe a huge thank you to local photographer Jason Ganwich for doing such a great job!

Friday, April 01, 2011

I was going to write an end of month check in, and I probably still will, but today I just have to say that this week is really testing my patience. And I know that this is not going to show me in my best light, but I need to whine a little bit about it.

So last week, I lost a lot of studio time because I was sick. My husband got a much harsher version of whatever cold/flu/whatever I had and is still sick. I'm trying to be a patient caregiver, but I think I've hit the wall on that. He's been home, coughing and looking miserable, all but one day this week. I'm used to a certain amount of alone time during the week which helps me stay on an even keel, and this week I did not get that which has left me feeling very bristly. Because of his coughing, I'm running on broken sleep, and since he's needed the car, I've lost another two studio days. (Today he needed the car to finally go to the doctor, so hopefully it will be worth the lost day!) I also had an orthodontist appointment that meant I had to skip my Yoga class on Tuesday, and the adjustment to my braces is still hurting 3 days later, so that's not much fun either.

Thanks for listening. I'm ending the week on a very frustrated and disheartened note, but hoping for better next week.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Okay, so after a week of most of what structure I've managed to build being dismantled (my catching a cold, my cat needing to go to the vet, my husband catching my cold), I will attempt to share what that structure (usually) is.

As I said before, my routine is a constant work-in-progress, but one aspect that has been a constant for several years is that I work best in the morning, so morning is my studio time.

Another constant has been that, in spite of heady visions of painting dawn til dusk (or heck, why not midnight), seven days a week, sustained by creativity and paint fumes alone, I can really only work for about three (or, on exceptional days, four) hours at a stretch. And it's almost impossible for me to return to painting once I've done that much. And as for the seven days a week? Well, not so much. A really good week is me working in my studio five days a week, but usually it's more like three or four.

The hardest lesson I've had to learn has been accepting this structure (and then remembering that I have accepted it). To not push myself to be somebody else in order to fulfill my unrealistic vision of what a "true artist" does all day (which only results in meltdowns and having to start over again). I'm sure there are some artists who work this way, but I'm learning that it's okay that I'm not one of them. When I was re-reading "Creating a Life Worth Living", one novelist that the author interviewed works in much the same way as I do (except he does write seven days a week and views weekends and holidays as annoyances). The day I read his interview I felt such a sense of relief. And when I next headed to the studio I gave myself permission to only stay for an hour or two. Ironically, I stayed longer and worked harder just knowing that I was allowed to work less!

Now, the rest of the day is another matter. When do I do marketing and research and all the stuff that surrounds the making of art but isn't the making of art? What about the parts of my life that aren't art-related? I'm still working on all that. I'm finding some tools that are helping me with all this, and I'll talk about those next week.

Friday, March 25, 2011

This week wasn't so stellar. I had a cold (finally getting over that, I hope) and one of the cats had to suddenly go to the vet (she seems to be getting better too), so I only got to the studio one day this week - today.

But I'm not feeling too bad about this week. I think it's because I have a good feeling about where my art is going right now, and I managed to do some sketching and planning while I was stuck at home so I feel like I did accomplish something. And I've somehow managed to keep self-judgment in check so I can actually acknowledge that.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Last week, I wrote about wrestling with the concept of having a routine, finding a schedule that works for my creative life, and today I want to return to that topic because I have more thoughts about it.

One of the things I've found most helpful on this quest for a structure is hearing about other creatives' routines. Not only does this give me new ideas to try, but, more importantly, it reminds me that we are all different. And therefore we all have different approaches and techniques that work for us, and they are ALL VALID! What a relief!

Sometimes, when I forget this, I just get so overwhelmed with all the advice about how an artist should arrange their day, and so angry and judgmental with myself when I can't seem to live up to someone else's expectations about my structure. There is soooooo much advice out there - paint (or write, or sculpt, or…) every day, paint first thing when you wake up, stay in the studio all day every day, treat it like a 9-5 job, etc, etc. And don't even get me started on how we're told we should use the internet. I'm not saying these are bad ideas, I'm just saying that they are not one size fits all. And trying to keep up with some of these ideas just because we think we should, well, it just causes pain.

Thankfully, I was re-reading yet another of my books about the creative life (Creating a Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd). Throughout the book she interviews creatives of all types in all sorts of fields (novelists, artists, filmmakers, designers…), and they are all successful, and they are all different. Some rise early and create for several hours, others work 2 or 3 hours at the same time each day, and one writer only works when the urge to write becomes too strong to ignore, usually at the end of the day.

And then today in my Yoga class, my instructor had us meditate on this topic of structure and expectations, internal and external, mental and physical. She allowed as how structure can be a good thing, but when held to too rigidly and without consciousness, it can also cause painful constriction. She reminded us to pay attention to what is and to release expectations of what we think it should be. By letting go of expectations, we can actually move beyond those expectations.

Friday, March 18, 2011

I spent quality time in my studio three days this week, and the other two I got to spend with my husband when he returned from his business trip to Austin. I even went to my studio this morning in spite of some strong Resistance that was telling me, quite reasonably, that my time would be better spent at home today.

I was rewarded for my persistence with a note from my studiomate telling me how much she loved the painting I had just completed yesterday! She's never left a note like that before, and it really made my day. :)